Health promotion of infants and young children depends upon the presence of nurturant caregiving environments. The broad aim of this project is to determine the empirical validity of maternal empathy as an influence in development from birth to age five. Specifically, the aims of this project are 1) to define precisely the empathic mediational strategies used by mothers in early interaction with their infants, 2) to test the predictive capacity of early maternal empathic indicators in relation to later socio- emotional development of children, and 3) to compare the capacity of maternal empathic indicators of maternal role attainment, a competing paradigm, in predicting later child development. The proposed project contains two phases that make use of extant videotapes of 124 mothers and infants recorded in the neonatal period (4-6 weeks after birth) and companion social, psychological, obstetric, and interactive data gathered on this sample at birth (N=124) and again at age five (N=61 of 124 in neonatal sample). In phase 1, videotaped interactions between mothers and infants during feeding, diapering, and play will be coded using two independent coding schemes. The first focuses on non-speech communication of mothers and is recorded as imitations and analogs of infant trigger behaviors displayed in 6 categories: eye, mouth, face, arm/hand, body, and sound. The second coding scheme is based on verbal perspective-taking and focuses on language (speech) content used by mothers during interaction. Each coding scheme involves continuous recording of events. Data analysis in phase 1 will examine patterns of empathic display and relationships of these to socio-demographic variables, context of care, and infant characteristics. In phase 2 empathic indicators measured in the neonatal period will be related to later childhood outcomes: social competence and behavioral adjustment at age five. Using multiple regression, the predictive power of empathic indicators will be examined and compared to those of a competing predictive model, maternal role attainment. Knowledge gained from this project will aid in determining the role of empathic mediation in providing healthy and nurturant environments for infants and children. This knowledge forms the base for informed clinical assessment and intervention.